


promise not to tell

by nebulia



Category: Chungha (Musician), K-pop, Sunmi (Korea Musician)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Arranged Marriage, Awkwardness, F/F, Pining, Sharing a Bed, sunmi and i are both obsessed with chungha’s eyelashes thx, sunmi’s v good at hiding it but she is having a gay panic, various kpop people mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-21 13:50:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17044907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nebulia/pseuds/nebulia
Summary: [Chungha’s head pops out of the closet again. “We can eat on the bed?” she says.“I’m the Queen and you’re my wife,” Sunmi says, and that’s...a really nice thing to say. It makes her whole body warm from the inside out. “We can eat on the bed.”“The bed, then, of course,” Chungha says, back in her closet. She comes out in an oversized sweater to match her sweatpants and socks. Sunmi wants to put her in her pocket and never take her out again.This is getting out of hand.]





	promise not to tell

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pageleaf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pageleaf/gifts).



> Happy bday caps!!!
> 
> I def wanted to write this but then I remembered it was your bday I should absolutely write it asap so you have it on your birthday (or a day late i guess _whatever_ ). so anyway i hope you enjoy this lil bit!
> 
> Ummm takes place in a nebulous story where Sunmi and Chungha have a political arranged marriage and they fall in love. That’s literally all the plot I have. Title from secret tape!
> 
> Unbetaed, and this is my first time writing these two, so forgive me for everything. Also my computer is in the shop right now so I posted this from my phone? So if formatting is bizarre I’m so sorry.

Generally speaking, Chungha sleeps in the spousal rooms adjoining Sunmi’s quarters. Their bedrooms are connected by a door, one that can be locked on both sides. Sunmi leaves her side unlocked, and she’s made it clear that Chungha is welcome any time. She’s not sure what Chungha does. Not sure she wants to know, when she feels like they’re becoming become friends over the weeks they’ve been married. 

It’s not until the first frost that the draft is discovered; one window that doesn’t shut quite tightly, leaving the room chillingly cold when the wind comes in from the east, even with the heat on. 

“The wind blows from a different direction most of the summer,” Yoongi, one of the palace’s maintenance men, proclaims as he examines the window. There’s a thick layer of frost on the inside, and Chungha is still shivering even in winter slippers with the comforter wrapped around her. He frowns at the window frame. “It probably didn’t create the same draft of heat as it does cold. We’ll fix it, your majesties, don't worry.” 

The night when they return to their chambers, Chungha’s whole window is out of its frame and Yoongi bows at the door. 

“I think Sejeong arranged a guest room for you, your highness,” he says to Chungha, looking apologetic. “We’ll have it repaired tomorrow but it’s just not ready yet. Obviously. Old buildings are...” He shrugs. 

“A guest room’s unnecessary,” Sunmi hears herself saying, unbidden. “She can stay in my quarters.” She swallows. “If that’s all right, Chungha.”

“It’s fine!” Chungha says quickly. “It’s closer to my things in the morning, and your rooms are always warm.” Her smile is genuine, but Sunmi’s not sure how sincere it is; maybe Chungha’s just going along because Sunmi offered. “Besides, weren’t you saying you were going to show me those movies? We don’t have anything until the afternoon tomorrow.” Chungha looks up at her, smile stretching to her eyes. 

“ _ Before Sunrise?” _Sunmi says, surprised Chungha remembered. They talked about it not long after the wedding, while they were on the national tour, travelworn and sleepy. Sunmi barely remembered the conversation herself. 

“Yeah,” Chungha says. “There are three, right?”

Sunmi nods. 

“Um,” Yoongi says, edging towards the door. “We’re gonna board up the window and put up a screen for the night, but you can get anything you need from the room. It should be repaired tomorrow.”

“Thanks for your hard work,” Sunmi says.

“Can we order pizza?” Chungha says, already in her closet grabbing sweatpants and fuzzy socks. “And beer, oh god, can we?”

Oh,  _ god.  _ She hasn’t had beer in... _ months _ . “Yuri will get us some,” Sunmi says. “You’re a genius, Chungha-yah.”

Chungha pokes her head out of the closet, turning pink. “I am?” She says. “I mean, of course I am, unnie, duh, thank you.” She smiles her eye smile again when Sunmi laughs. 

“Beer is the  _ best _ idea,” Sunmi says. “I’ll have Yuri get us some and find the movies. Do you want to watch on the sofa or the bed?”

Chungha’s head pops out of the closet again. “We can eat on the  _ bed? _ ” she says.

“I’m the Queen and you’re my wife,” Sunmi says, and that’s...a really nice thing to say. It makes her whole body warm from the inside out. “We can eat on the bed.” 

“The bed, then, of course,” Chungha says, back in her closet. She comes out in an oversized sweater to match her sweatpants and socks. Sunmi wants to put her in her pocket and never take her out again. 

This is getting out of hand.

 

—

 

Really, it’s not all that different than their dinners over work in their shared office, only dinner is greasy and glorious and instead of Drake or jazz on the speakers it’s  _ Before Sunrise.  _

“They talk a lot,” Chungha says, taking a swig of beer. Yuri even managed to get  _ cold  _ beer, which Sunmi hasn’t gotten since she was abroad and which Chungha prefers, too. “This is a really talky movie.”

Truthfully, though Sunmi has loved the whole  _ Before Sunrise  _ trilogy since Seulgi showed it to her, she’s having a hard time keeping up. The trade negotiations are exhausting, and she keeps getting distracted by pizza or beer or Chungha’s eyelashes, so so long even after she’s washed the makeup off her face, as they flutter when she tips her head back to finish the bottle.

“We can watch it again later,” Sunmi says. “Do you wanna watch something else?”

“You won’t be upset if we do?” Chungha says. “It’s not that I’m not interested, I’m just having a hard time paying attention.” Her mouth draws into a little pout. “I don’t want to say your taste in movies is bad. I hope you don’t think I’m—“

“I don’t!” Sunmi says, grabbing her hands. “Please don’t worry, I’m having a hard time keeping up tonight, too. We can watch something else.” She grins. “ _ Jurassic Park?”  _

Chungha’s eyes light up.

—

 

When Sunmi wakes up, the DVD menu of   _ The Lost World  _ is playing on the TV, and Chungha is curled around her. She’d taken off her sweatpants when they’d swapped out DVDs, because Sunmi’s blankets were “really warm,” so she’s just in a pair of boyshorts and her sweater, which has ridden up to reveal a strip of skin; the blankets are tangled around their thighs. She’s draped her arm around Sunmi’s waist, her head off the pillow, almost nuzzling Sunmi’s breasts, legs curled up, a thigh between Sunmi’s. Sunmi’s complicit, too; she can feel the dimples at the base of Chungha’s spine, one hand tucked between the knit of the sweater and Chungha’s sleep-warm skin, the other almost resting on the back of her neck, buried in Chungha’s silky hair. 

She’s just keeping her hands warm, but even as she thinks it her heart sinks. She’s never been good at lying to herself. 

She watches Chungha sigh in her sleep. Her eyelashes are inky and long, resting against her cheekbones. She noses a little closer to Sunmi—a little closer to Sunmi’s  _ breasts _ —and hums. She is warm and beautiful and everything Sunmi ever dreamed of marrying, and she  _ is  _ married to Sunmi.

It’s just they didn’t do it for love. This is a political arrangement, even if it’s a friendship now, but still—it’s  _ political.  _ It’s not a romance. Chungha speaks English and if Sunmi wanted an ongoing trade agreement to be successful long-term, she needed Chungha to be her spouse, to be connected to her permanently via matrimony. It doesn’t matter that Chungha is beautiful and funny and so smart and likes to spend her evenings drinking beer and eating pizza and watching nineties action movies. Chungha’s still a stranger to this country even if she speaks the language, she’s only just started to drop her guard around Sunmi, only just realized she can’t get in trouble for being herself. She’ll always be just Queen Consort and not Sunmi’s equal. She’s Sunmi’s wife but she can’t ever be Sunmi’s  _ beloved _ and it would be creepy and untoward of Sunmi to even suggest it. 

Chungha’s hand clenches slightly in Sunmi’s t-shirt. She’s cute just breathing, her face slack and calm in sleep. There’s still a smear of pizza sauce on one cheek, high up and far from her mouth, and Sunmi can’t help but smile at her before she drops her head back on the pillow, staring up at the upholstered canopy of her bed. 

She is well and truly fucked. 

**Author's Note:**

> Sunmi likes Jurassic Park bc she’s a meme queen don’t @ me. She also is actually a queen irl, don’t @ me x 2 thx. I tried to mostly make referenced characters make sense wrt people who are friends & known associates of Sunmi/Chungha; Yoongi’s the exception mostly bc he was the first kpop person I thought of who has a reputation for fixing things. 
> 
> I can be found on [twitter as bokglobulia](%E2%80%9Ctwitter.com/bokglobulia%E2%80%9D), and [tumblr](%E2%80%9Cnebulia.tumblr.com%E2%80%9D) and [curiouscat](%E2%80%9Ccuriouscat.me/nebulia%E2%80%9D) as nebulia!
> 
> Comments and kudos appreciated!


End file.
